Remember Them! Christians Threatened, Terrorized in Egypt, Syria

Amidst the busyness of our lives we often need the admonishment: “Remember!” We use it in slogans to bring to mind the lessons of history. Remember the Alamo. 9-11: Never forget. Or maybe for our Occupy friends: Remember, remember the 5th of November. The author of Hebrews exhorted his readers: “Remember those in prison as though you were in prison with them, and those ill-treated as though you too felt their torment” (Hebrews 13:3 NET).

This verse first impacted me nineteen years ago when my wife’s grandmother introduced me to The Voice of the Martyrs. Upon her recommendation I requested a copy of Richard Wurmbrand’s Tortured for Christ. I remember reading the book while flying on missions when I was in the military. When I finished the book I immediately called The Voice of the Martyrs and asked how I could help. Several months later I was passing out Gospel cassettes in Arabic to third-country-nationals working in Saudi Arabia.

Hebrews 13:3 came to my mind again this week as I read of yet another round of Islamic attacks upon Coptic Christians in Egypt. Loyalists to the Obama-backed Mohamed Morsi regime fire-bombed three churches in central Egypt on August 14th. Another church was attacked the next day. These are the latest in what some are calling a “war of retaliation” following the Coptic church’s support of Morsi’s removal. However, as one commentator has pointed out, “The Brotherhood is not ‘retaliating’ against Christians. Islamic supremacists are persecuting Christians . . . which is what they do in Muslim-majority countries.”

Meanwhile, the religious cleansing of Christians continues in Syria. Jihadists of the Obama-backed Free Syrian Army are intensely targeting Christians which has caused many of them to flee to the slums of Turkey. The Carmelite nun Sister Agnes-Miriam reported back in December that “an estimated 300,000 Christians have been displaced in the conflict, with 80,000 forced out of the Homs region alone.” Agnes-Miriam provided these figures in the same interview in which she told of a Christian, Andrei Arbashe, being thrown to the dogs after his kidnapping and beheading at the hands of Obama-supported rebels in Ras Al-Ayn.

Hebrews 13:3 calls upon Christians to remember these brothers and sisters in Christ as if we were feeling this torment ourselves. If I was experiencing this persecution I would want it to stop. I would want to know that help was on the way. I would want to know that I have not been forgotten. What can we do for these Christians who are being attacked by Islamists across the Middle East?

1) Call upon President Obama to stop his active support of the Islamist regimes who are violently cleansing their countries of Christians. Demand that Congress cease all funding for jihadist rebels who are using their resources to behead Christians and displace them from their homes. This week the activist community I co-created, Evangelicals for Liberty, reported on Sen. Rand Paul’s attempts to stop the billions in illegal foreign aid that is currently flowing into Egypt. Sen. Paul states,

Jeff Wright, Jr. is a grateful husband, blessed daddy, and long-suffering Redskins fan. He is a Prison Chaplain in the "city of lost souls" and is the co-creator of Evangelicals for Liberty. Jeff holds a ThM from Dallas Seminary, and is a member of the Evangelical Theological Society. Jeff is a civil liberties activist on behalf of the "sacred order of freemen" and minister of the "fellowship of twice-born sinners."

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